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This is my 3x great grandfather John FAIRS, looking at the photo you wouldn’t have thought he spent all his life as an agricultural labourer. I don’t know where or when this photo was taken, but I am guessing it might have been on the occasion of marriage of one of his daughters.

John FAIRS (1839-1915)

John was baptised on the 8th December 1839, in West Grinstead, Sussex. He was the son of John FAIRS and Eliza WORSFIELD. His father died whilst he was quite young, and John began his working life in West Grinstead at an early age.

Between 1851 and 1861 John moved to Henfield and he married his wife Mary Ann WELLER there on the 2nd March 1862. Together they had six children, all girls. Two of them (Mary and Ellen) died as children, aged seven and six respectively.

Three of the four remaining daughters married. Annie married Ebenezer TROWER (my 2x great grandparents) in 1889, Fanny married Thomas Arthur BARRY in 1894 and Jane married George SHEPHERD in 1902.

John’s wife Mary Ann died in 1883 and was buried in the churchyard at Henfield. John appears to have been living with Annie and Ebenezer TROWER (or was it the other way around) at Little Betley, Henfield. After Annie and Ebenezer moved to Sayers Common, John appears to have lived with his daughter Jane, and later with her husband and son after her marriage.

John died on the 27th November 1915 and was buried with his wife at Henfield churchyard. A headstone exists (or existed) because it has been transcribed by the Sussex Family History Group, but I have been unable to locate it yet.